Ox blood
color code: # 730800
The term ox blood is often used in connection with historical colors , but is not clearly defined - neither as a color nor as a hue . There are various recipes from different authors for producing the paint. The common element of these colors is a red-brown hue due to the use of pigments from iron (III) oxide ( hematite ), which is vaguely reminiscent of (ox) blood . Contrary to popular belief, even with historical paints, the name does not come from the use of blood in the paint mixture. It simply refers to the shade that is similar to the color of bovine or ox blood. The red-coloring components of the paint come from iron oxide , which came from pigments from earth minerals or roasted, ground ores. The red coloring components of the blood in the hemoglobin of the red blood cells would not be sufficient as a coloring for a paint and would not be weather-resistant either. Historical color recipes that use blood mostly only use it as a binding agent and not as a colorant. It could therefore be used for red colors as well as for other shades (e.g. Berlin blue ). If pure animal blood was used for painting purposes, it was at most in the interior. The red color of the fresh blood soon changed to brown. Adding blood to lime paint made technical sense because of the protein content of the blood, as an alternative to adding animal proteins such as egg white. White lime paints could be tinted slightly to off-white due to the iron oxide content of the blood.
Traditionally, these colors were used to protect and visually design wooden surfaces on wooden floorboards and timber framing . The frequent use of this red-brown shade in the past is less based on taste preferences than on cost awareness, as the color was cheap.
A similar shade is the Swedish Falun red .
Due to the current possibilities of the synthetic production of mineral pigments, the range of available shades of iron oxide pigments has expanded considerably.
Bois Durci (also known as hardened wood) was a natural plastic made from a mixture of wood flour and ox blood in France in the middle of the 19th century , which, after drying, was pressed into molded pieces while being heated.
literature
- Ulrich Schießl: "Ochsenblut" - a dye binder and a color name, in: Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg, 1981 issue 3, pp. 122–126. On-line
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cf. The Color Amusement , filled with all kinds of beautiful curious and secret sciences , Volume 2, Nuremberg 1741, p. 12, No. 52. Online
- ↑ William Jervis Jones: Historical Lexicon of German Color Designations , p. 346, line 16ff., P. 2080, sv Prussian blue.
- ↑ Ulrich Schiessl: "Ochsenblut" - A dye binder and a dye taking, in: Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg, 1981 issue 3, pp. 122–126.